仿佛 (fǎng fú) — to seem; as if | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A literary 'as if / seemingly', more written than the everyday 好像. 似的 is a particle that must follow what it describes, while 仿佛 stands before the verb phrase.

adverb

to seemas if

Examples

仿佛，。
Tā fǎng fú hěn lèi, yì zhí zài dǎ hā qian.
He seems very tired, yawning all the time.
，仿佛。
Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā fǎng fú sōng le yì kǒu qì.
Upon hearing the news, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
仿佛。
Yuǎn chù de shān zài wù zhōng fǎng fú xiān jìng yì bān.
The distant mountains in the mist seem like a fairyland.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

The two characters together spell a single idea of seeming or resembling; neither 仿 nor 佛 carries its own meaning here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

亻弗佛

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

弗

弗fú佛Fó

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

佛 is made from 亻, a person, and 弗, which gives the sound.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 5 HSK 2.0 Level 5

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